Art Of The Day Weekly
#5 - from 25 May 2006 to 31 May 2006
IN THE AIR
Biennial events galore
There was a time when the Biennial of Venice was the only one to appear in the calendars of the aesthetes. In our time there are so many biennial, triennial and quadriennial events that they cover the planet. One could complain, referring to the automatic loss of quality. But one can also rejoice at the windows that open up to far away lands that are not as accessible as the prophets of doom of globalization pretend. Look at Busan, this biennial event in South Korea inaugurates its "prologue" this week and has now reached the age of reason. It started a quarter of a century ago as a biennial event for a young public, and its latest editions now attract one million visitors.A perfect window shop on what is done in the Land of the calm Morning, it contributes to tighten the bonds between the Far East and the West. The only inconvenient with these events is the tight schedule they impose on the visitor. As of September one will hop from one continent to the next: Singapur, Gwangju, Athens, Liverpool, Sao Paulo. There is no doubt that Biennial events get you around.
EXHIBITIONS
To rediscover Rassenfosse
Among the Walloon artists unrecognized outside their borders, Armand Rassenfosee (1862-1934) has a privileged place. At the crossroads of various influences -the nabis, the symbolists, Vallotton's clear lines- he developped a work greatly focused on woman and her universe, between the boudoir, beds unmade and hair-dressing sessions in front of the mirror. A talented poster artist, an illustrator (notably Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal ) he also built his reputation as an engraver, and collaborated in particular with Félicien-Rops. The two men even perfected a soft varnish, named in a prankish way, the ropsenfosse. Armand Rassenfosse was a virtuoso of a long gone type, the ex-libris. His collections are kept at the university of Liège. The artist was neglected far too long, but two simultaneous events now put him in the limelight: the exhibition and a complete monograph published by Racine. This should give an impulse to his rating...
To know more, see the very complete pages of the University of Liège
Beware, Sierra is coming
MALAGA-Santiago Sierra built his reputation on his installations and provocative performances. They are rarely accepted without causing a stir and the museums that have hosted them never survive the experience without a cold sweat. The Center for Contemporary art of Malaga as accepted the challenge though no one has forgotten the episode of the synagogue in Pulheim, near Köhln. In order to protest against "the banalization of th ememory of the Shoah", Sierra had turned the synagogue into a gaz chamber, fed by exhaust pipes from six cars, while the visitors went through with gaz masks. The exhibition was closed as soon as it opened, on 12 March. In Malaga, Santiago Sierra presents the product of his performance from the Autumn of 2005 in Bucharest, "the Corridor of the House of the People". Photos, videos and large diptychs show hundreds of women begging while repeating mechanically "Give me something". Furthermore, the artist foresees a special intervention completing this project on the ill effects of dictatorships.
When Millet used to go out for fresh air
PARIS- The Orsay museum, which owns the largest drawing collections (600 in total) by Jean-François Millet, will be exhibiting an interesting ensemble. The avowed aim of this exhibit-dossier is to belie the image of Millet as a workshop artist, one who never worked outdoors. This interpretation is largely due to his son's memories when he wrote, "When he walked through the fields, he carried only his cane". While this may be true for his painting, his drawings at the Orsay museum reveal a rather spontaneous character, showing they were done in front of the motif. Among these works quickly sketched, some come from notebooks the artist slipped into the pockets of his pea jacket. Rural life is clearly at the heart of his sketches, of which many were done after he settled in Barbizon in 1849.
MUSEUMS
Andalusian silver
BRUSSELS- Silver tiaras, copper halberds, gold bracelets: the diggings carried out in Southern Spain by geologists Louis and Henri Siret between 1880 and 1887 unveiled numerous treasures, shedding light on the first metallurgical industry, in Western Europe's history. Around the IVth millennium B.C., in the region near what is today Almeria, in Andalusia, collective graves made way to individual tombs. The two Belgian brothers unearthed hundreds of terracotta recipients, necklaces in ivory pearls, bone and fruit pits. But the most spectacular pieces are of course the ones that show the perfected know-how in working with metal. The Royal Museums of art and history inaugurate a permanenet exhibition-logically named the Siret room- dedicated to this civilization of El Argar which after working with copper excelled for a longtime in silver. But it was never able to take the qualitative jump towards bronze, the material for war above all others.
AUCTIONS
House sale Italian style
FLORENCE-The anglo-saxon auction houses have specialized in "house sales" that consist in selling the whole contents of an aristocratic home. These true marathons rhythmed by the auctioneers' hammer and spread over a number of days, sometimes unveil a few masterpieces. But their "chamber of curisoity" aspect is what mostly attracts amateurs. Such is the case in Tuscany this week with the Villa La Torre, the Medici family's summer residence. Its contents are similar to a surrealist inventory. Carpets, censers, bronze and marble mortars, a Savonarole chair (10 000€), medals, inkwells, ivory clepsydrae, Faenza plates, mosaics in hard stone...In total, 650 lots, ranging from the XIV to the XXth centuries, starting at a few hundred euros. These include some lovely pieces such as "gold funds" from the XIVth century, Renaissance paintings ( a Virgin with child by the Master from Lathrop from the beginning of the XVIth century, 170 000€) or a group of candelabrae angels in earthenware from Montelupo (towards 1600, 70 000€). Among the pieces that make one's heart throb is a Capodimonte porcelain group presenting Pulcinella and a girl friend with their hands digging into a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce (towards 1750, 25 000€). It is so realistic that it opens one's appetite.
BOOKS
Ipoustéguy, what painter are thee?
In the various histories of art he appears once and for all as a sculptor. We are all familiar with is large bronzes, his marble sculptures, Les Amants (The lovers), La Mort du père (The father's death, and more recently his statue of Rimbaud in Paris. Therefore the author's curiosity was awakened by a phone call from the Lorraine region in the winter of 2004 when she was invited to "Come take a look at what I found again". Ipoustéguy himself at the other end. Boxes that had been closed decades ago let out paintings brimming with matter, with relief-but paintings just the same. This is an archeological document, the proof of a brief season in 1967-1968 which Ipoustéguy spent in the workshop of his friend Sam Szafran. What are the themes? His loved ones, current events (the death of Pope John XXIII, the Vietnam war), women. They were all painted directly with the tube the artist applied brutally on the canvas. One feels that even in 2D he needs to measure himself physically to his creations. Ipoustéguy showed the paintings to a person he knew, who did not care for them. He dropped painting as quickly as he had picked it up and returned to sculpture. The author made an appointment with Ipoustéguy for 11 February 2006 to show him his text. But the latter, in a final bow, died on the 8th. Now it is sure we will know nothing more about this brief pictorial fever. Yet one question remains: will the public be able to see these paintings one day?
IN BRIEF
BERLIN – The new train station of the German capital, the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, capable of managing a flow of 300 000 passengers per day, is inaugurated on 26 May.
EYMOUTIERS – The large Soulages exhibition, programmed for this summer at the Espace Rebeyrolle, has been canceled. It has been pushed back to the summer of 2007.
GENOA-The antique dealers of the Ligurian capital organise Genova Antiquaria, from 25 to 29 May. Open late in the evening and a few pieces of quality, among which paintings by Bernardo Strozzi and Artemisia Gentileschi.
IVRY-« Jardins secrets »(SECRET GARDENS), is a contemporary art event hosted by the Charles-Foix hospital (7 avenue de la République). It is celebrating its tenth anniversary under the chairmanship of critic Jean-Louis Pradel. This year it will receive, from 31 May to 30 June, sculptures by Patrick Fleury and Jean-Bernard Métais.
LONDON- Sotheby’s announces the sale of one of the last paintings by Holbein the Younger to still be in private hands. The Portrait of Thomas Younger (towards 1541) will be put up for sale on 5 July. It is estimated between 2 and 3 million pounds and will benefit from the good publicity given by the retrospective currently held at Basel and that will continue in London at the Tate Britain on 28 September.
PARIS-The exhibition «Kaléidoscope» presents the work of the 17 students who graduated in 2005 with congratulations from the jury: it is open until 13 July at the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts. An opportunity to discover some futur stars of the plastic arts?
The presentatoin of the exhibition on the website of the Ensba
PARIS-The 4th edition of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés itinerary is baptised Essences insensées (Insane essences. The contemporary artists took over the Ecole des beaux-arts, as well as the boutiques and cafés in the neighborhood while working on the theme of perfume.
PARIS-Photographer Willy Ronis, 95 years old, who between 1983 and 1989 offered the French State all of his work (nearly 100 000 images), symbolically closed the donation on 24 May with a last album of 563 photographs.
PORTO RICO-Announced as the first international fair of contemporary art in Central America, Circa Puerto Rico is held at the San Juan conference center, from 25 to 28 May.
VENICE – The Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti organises, on 26 and 27 May, an international conference on the theme: «Cultural Europe - the movement of cultural goods». Among the participants, Francine Mariani-Ducray, director of the museums of France, and Antonio Paolucci, former Italian minister of Culture.
ON ARTOFTHEDAY.INFO
This week, do not miss
PARIS-As it does three times a year, the Orsay museum has invited contemporary artists to a dialogue with works of the past using a creation appropriately chosen. Annette Messager chose the model of the district of the Paris Opera while Robert Mangold turned to the sculpted wood at Gauguin's Maison du Jouir.